Situation of Roma in France at crisis proportions - report

A new report by the European Roma Rights Centre finds that France's Gypsy and Romani population lives in a pervasive climate of racism and discrimination.

Hard on the heels of the riots in France, the Budapest-based European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) has published a detailed report on the human rights situation of Gypsies, Travellers and Romani migrants in France. Entitled Always somewhere else: Anti-Gypsyism in France, the report sums up the findings of the ERRC's relevant research and monitoring activities since 2003.

According to the report, the settled Gypsy population in France is officially estimated at around 500,000, although other estimates say that the actual figure is much closer to 1.2 million. The report says that the vast majority of Gypsies and Travellers in France are French nationals. Travellers (Gens du voyage) are understood to be mobile home dwellers.

In the report, the ERRC says that "France is renowned as the source and guardian of modern democracy and of individual rights and freedoms; yet, hundreds of thousands of French citizens are subject to severe violations of the most basic civil and political rights without this seeming to cause even a ripple of protest, let alone public outcry, at the challenge posed to the very foundations of the French Republic. A large part of those affected by these violations are Gypsies and Travellers, indicating that these violations are in fact racist in character".

Roma minorities are widely considered the most vulnerable to racism and discrimination in the new EU member states as well, especially in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.

Roma children in the Czech Republic are consistently discriminated against in schools due to the Czech government’s longstanding failure to address prejudices within the society, says Salil Shetty, the Secretary General of Amnesty International, in an exclusive interview with EurActiv Czech Republic.

All member states align their anti-discrimination legislation with the EU Race Equality Directive. However, local and central institutions do not consistently enforce it, argue Margareta Matache and Arlen Fuller.

The first step towards countering anti-Gypsyism is to recognise it as such, argues Martin Demirovski from ENAR, the European Network Against Racism, in an op-ed calling on the renewed European institutions to make the fight against this ever growing phenomenon in Europe a priority.

Looking beyond the 2010 European Year for combating poverty and social exclusion, Employment and Social Policy Commissioner László Andor says the EU and its member states must keep working to find new and more effective ways to improve the lives of the most disadvantaged groups. He spoke to EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

Some EU countries recognize the Roma as a national minority. However, they still remain racially discriminated against in education, employment, housing, and other societal domains, writes Martin Demirovski.

In an attempt to avoid the re-introduction of visas for Serbian nationals travelling to the Schengen area, Belgrade said it was ready to pay Western countries for the extra cost incurred by "fake asylum seekers" on their territory.

Faced with stiff opposition from older EU members, Romania is no longer asking for an accession date to the Union’s borderless Schengen area. “We are ready for Schengen when you are”, Romanian Interior Minister Radu Stroe will tell his colleagues at a meeting in Brussels today (5 December).

Blaming Roma for everything from petty crime to trash on the streets, thousands of supporters of Hungary's far-right opposition Jobbik party rallied in the eastern city of Miskolc yesterday (17 October).